Subject: POLITICO Huddle, presented by the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food: JEWISH DEMS TARGET OF LOBBYING BLITZ – Cardin: ‘Just bear with us’ – GOP THREATENS PLANNED PARENTHOOD SUBPOENA – Scandal wades into vets bill – LINDSEY SMASHES FLIP PHONE
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 05:43:53 -0600

By Seung Min Kim (
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  or @seungminkim)

JEWISH DEMS TARGET OF LOBBYING BLITZ - POLITICO's Lauren French: "As President Barack Obama works to stop Republicans from amassing two-thirds majorities against his Iran deal in Congress, a group of 18 Jewish House Democrats is emerging as a key voting bloc ... The lawmakers are in a tough spot, tugged by their allegiance to Israel on one hand and by their wariness of another potential Middle East war on the other. In interviews, several of them described already being under intense pressure from the administration and groups aligned with Israel that are warning loudly that the agreement will endanger the Jewish state."

--"The Jewish Democrats in the House are expected to be among the most heavily lobbied members in the run-up to the September vote, given that they could provide the bulk of opposition within Obama's party to his legacy-making agreement. The pressure campaign is already well underway. 'Everybody is talking. I met with J Street today, next week AIPAC is coming in,' said Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), referring to two groups on opposite sides of the Iran deal. He is undecided on the deal." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b77c782188dd128d306caa916b4bcef1a6f9329a4d0db36f2 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b77c782188dd128d306caa916b4bcef1a6f9329a4d0db36f2 

--The Wall Street Journal's Kristina Peterson and Carol E. Lee sense an uptick of Dem support for the Iran deal - although many key votes are still undecided: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b2a1443eee7da859f839ccc4d7c87b6e050409d3a9dbff441 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b2a1443eee7da859f839ccc4d7c87b6e050409d3a9dbff441 

--And Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Dem on Foreign Relations, urges patience: "We're three days into the 60-day review period. Just bear with us. For those of us who have watched two years of negotiations ... it's important for us to have more than two days to analyze." From Burgess Everett and Lauren: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bc0721db583395f5c9b95cfa6ac1dcebc035595f839f946bf 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bc0721db583395f5c9b95cfa6ac1dcebc035595f839f946bf 

--Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew are back on the Hill today for the first high-profile public grilling, from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The AP has a preview: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b377ecf50a3d4b2168752413abd72c956b9681fa6bde991bc 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b377ecf50a3d4b2168752413abd72c956b9681fa6bde991bc 

BEST THING YOU'LL WATCH TODAY - Most Huddle readers have already seen, I'm sure. But watch Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) destroy his flip phone (and break Chuck Schumer's heart in the process): 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b7cc4191c500d3ecebe42c9ade891b0203317fa271955a0f4 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b7cc4191c500d3ecebe42c9ade891b0203317fa271955a0f4 

@KellyO: 
mailto:.@LindseyGrahamSC 
.@LindseyGrahamSC  'Donald Trump has been able to do something my staff could not do for years: get me a new phone. So thanks Donald.'

PLANNED PARENTHOOD SCANDAL MUCKS UP VETS BILL - From the Military Times: "The hopes of veterans who need help starting a family as a result of injuries sustained in combat were dashed Wednesday when Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., pulled a bill that would have allowed the Veterans Affairs Department to fund fertility treatments. Murray ... pulled it after Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., added amendments that, among other things, questioned the funding for the initiative and would have prohibited the VA from working with Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide fertility and abortion services." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bac2c7e43ccc14675e08aa53a5709f4b854863635f4faa0b0 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bac2c7e43ccc14675e08aa53a5709f4b854863635f4faa0b0 

--House Republicans are threatening to subpoena a top Planned Parenthood official, per POLITICO's Anna Palmer and John Bresnahan: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b8e1c7d526d3a8e2497873c2f13f031b73935dbf3790a6e13 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b8e1c7d526d3a8e2497873c2f13f031b73935dbf3790a6e13 

--Dems are fighting back, calling for an investigation into the Center for Medical Progress - the nonprofit behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos. From CNN: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7be43ce385ae1cd366a5618e927896174fabfdb6fb959c0cb7 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7be43ce385ae1cd366a5618e927896174fabfdb6fb959c0cb7 

--And Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the Justice Department is looking into the issue, via The Hill: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b63dfbbd29dceaa1340693744d43a8ede77a859af9a945fa7 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b63dfbbd29dceaa1340693744d43a8ede77a859af9a945fa7 

CAMPAIGN FINANCE RIDER IN SPENDING BILL - CQ Roll Call's Tamar Hallerman spots the provision: "Senate appropriators folded into a draft spending bill a provision long sought by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that would relax campaign finance coordination rules between candidates and the political parties. This marks the second time in less than a year that lawmakers have sought major changes to campaign finance regulations through must-pass appropriations measures."

--"The provision would effectively consolidate power within the national parties including the Republican and Democratic committees raising money for House and Senate candidates. GOP appropriators tucked the provision into the $20.56 billion fiscal 2016 Financial Services spending bill the full committee is slated to mark up Thursday." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bc7dd0d4ff1752f09100f85673fff24fb656f28f2f8928189 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bc7dd0d4ff1752f09100f85673fff24fb656f28f2f8928189 

TRANSITIONS - Two Hill alums are joining the super PAC backing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential bid. Pursuing America's Greatness (PAGPAC) is announcing today that Stuart Roy (Tom DeLay alum) and Blain Rethmeier (alum of Senate Judiciary, House Oversight and Government Reform, Mary Bono Mack, and Scott McInnis) have joined its team as senior communications strategists and spokespeople.

** A message from the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food: The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, supported by a broad, bipartisan coalition, is a common-sense solution that brings consistency and transparency to the marketplace - similar to the National Organic Program.Tell your Representative to vote for this important legislation today. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b196d61bd85029eb704ad1c58bbadd7e14f46e9d41095d3c5 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b196d61bd85029eb704ad1c58bbadd7e14f46e9d41095d3c5  **

WELCOME TO CONGRESS FRIDAY, OR THURSDAY JULY 23, 2015 and you're reading the Huddle, where we're skeptical Mitch McConnell will follow through with his working-through-the-weekend threat. Want to prove me wrong, @StewSays? I'm at 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked]  and on Twitter at @seungminkim.

My new followers include @RepMarciaFudge and @eyokley.

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House is in at 10 a.m. and voting between 12:45 to 1:45 p.m. and 3 to 4 p.m. They'll be taking up the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act and the Enforce the Law for Sanctuary Cities Act. The Senate is in at 9:30 a.m. and will resume work on the highway bill.

AROUND THE HILL - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is holding her weekly press conference at 10:45 a.m. in HVC Studio A. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will hold his weekly press conference at 11:30 a.m. in HVC Studio A. Pelosi and Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and others will introduce a federal LGBT discrimination ban at noon in S-211. Buzzfeed News' Dominic Holden has a preview here: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bd9cb71f9bf58fd3a460f51f9f2fdcce640bc458fd1a20ca0 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bd9cb71f9bf58fd3a460f51f9f2fdcce640bc458fd1a20ca0 

Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) will hold a press call on the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations at 1 p.m. Call 800-875-3456 and the access code is SAND72088. Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) will hold a press conference on origin labeling legislation at 2 p.m. in S-325.

Just off the Hill, Senate Majority Whip JohnCornyn (R-Texas) is speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the future of American energy in foreign policy starting at 8:30 a.m.

BERNIE RALLIES FED WORKERS ON MINIMUM WAGE - From the Washington Post's Mike DeBonis: "Hundreds of low-wage workers -- including dozens of U.S. Senate contract employees who walked off the job -- rallied on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, calling for a $15 minimum wage and the right to form unions with the help of Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) and several House Democrats. 'I think that if you work 40 hours a week you have a right not to be living in poverty,' said Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, to cheers on the Capitol grounds."

--"[T]he current Senate food-service contract is under review ahead of its December expiration, and Democratic senators are pushing for better wages and benefits for workers. Those workers include Pamela Cadlett, 62, a cashier in the cafeteria at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, who did not go to work Wednesday so she could attend the rally. She described a workplace where wages are low ($11.30 an hour), hours are not guaranteed and benefits are nearly nonexistent. Yearly earnings that once approached $50,000 before the 2008 privatization, she said, are now well below $20,000."

--"When she asked for leave recently to tend to a family emergency in North Carolina, Cadlett said, a supervisor made it clear that no time off would be granted while the Senate is in session, throwing her leave request slip into the trash in front of her. 'We need a voice,' she said. 'We have no voice in there.'" 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b151516f0d5b70bf9cdfdd14f2b460f7972d1bdb08018d155 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b151516f0d5b70bf9cdfdd14f2b460f7972d1bdb08018d155 

OBAMA PUSHES HILL ON EX-IM - David Jackson for USA Today: "The Export-Import Bank helps American businesses compete with foreign competition, President Obama said Wednesday in urging Congress to re-authorize the agency after allowing its charter to lapse. The Ex-Im Bank 'helps U.S. companies - with U.S. companies - sell their products overseas,' Obama said after meeting with lawmakers and business owners who have used the bank&#39;s services are now in the lurch." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b0111d4d425c12bb63a98e050209231fe8ad5646c7f8de280 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b0111d4d425c12bb63a98e050209231fe8ad5646c7f8de280 

--It's not quite a veto threat, but White House press secretary Josh Earnest had this to say re: Ex-Im and the highway bill: "[A]s this legislation gets put together, we certainly would like to see and would insist upon the inclusion of the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank. So all that is to say we're going to continue to review the [highway] bill."

MORE IMMIGRATION BILLS FROM HOUSE GOP? House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy makes a promise, from moi: "In an email sent to GOP lawmakers, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) details a conversation he had with the No. 2 House Republican earlier this week. During the talk, McCarthy had asked King whether he would oppose a bill on the floor later this week targeting 'sanctuary cities' - a measure that has come under some criticism from conservatives for not being tough enough."

--"King wrote in the email that he would support the bill, but that other House conservatives - who are itching to do more immigration enforcement legislation - would be disappointed. 'Kevin McCarthy expressed commitment to me to bring enforcement immigration legislation to the floor after August,' King wrote in the email. 'I'll continue to advocate for what we can do that is constructive.'" 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b0fe97d3304310447e10aecada787fe0f0fdd9921f7cdc2ed 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b0fe97d3304310447e10aecada787fe0f0fdd9921f7cdc2ed 

--Twenty mayors from some of the biggest cities nationwide are urging lawmakers to avoid federal legislation cracking down on sanctuary cities, from The Hill's Mike Lillis: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b6717b4db3cff954acab36b63c45776beeb737b6e2dc4c286 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b6717b4db3cff954acab36b63c45776beeb737b6e2dc4c286 

TED CRUZ DISSES SCOTUS - From Michael A. Lindenberger for the Dallas Morning News: "It was the third time he's convened a hearing as chairman of the Judiciary Committee's oversight and federal courts subcommittee since his party took control of the Senate after last fall's elections. On one level, the hearing's purpose was to flesh out his views, and those of others, on the future of the Supreme Court."

--"Cruz argues that the justices have become so political that they can no longer be trusted to be appointed for life ... '[M]uch to my great disappointment, this past term the court crossed a line, and continued its long descent into lawlessness to a level that I believe demands action,' Cruz said. 'The court today is not a body of jurists. It is not a body of judges following the law. But rather, it has declared itself in effect a super-legislature.'" 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b9c01b4ae39f5755cdc0e4eb8e117f09bb2afdf1a13c49ac9 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b9c01b4ae39f5755cdc0e4eb8e117f09bb2afdf1a13c49ac9 

IT'S AN OBAMACARE PAR-TAY - Dems fired up the noisemakers to celebrate the recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld subsidies for the health care law. From Lauren French: "Just off the House floor, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) cheered on the Affordable Care Act just weeks after the court ruled that a contested section of the controversial law was constitutional."

--"The lawmakers, wearing stickers that proclaimed 'ACA works,' touted the law as one of the strongest 'pillars of economic and healthcare success' in legislative history. 'The fact is we wrote an iron-clad constitutional bill so let us take credit,' said Pelosi to cheers from the 100-person crowd." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7baa533d80ac40a1d5bc0c0c9f7375095765e1db84195a7009 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7baa533d80ac40a1d5bc0c0c9f7375095765e1db84195a7009 

WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Claude Marx was the first person to correctly answer that former Rep. Carroll Hubbard (D-Ky.) was identified by FBI agents as "Elmer Fudd" as part of a sting operation into corruption charges. We're also giving a shout-out to Patrick Boland, who chimed in correctly but says he read Huddle first before sending in the trivia answer.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Claude has today's question: Almost 100 years ago, the GOP nominated Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes for president. Which president nominated him to the court and what state was he the governor of when he was named to the high court? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. E-mail 
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked] .

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says 'Sign Up.' 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bd9809b6382cc679f46828447ff6cbdeb7d712f858f2566f8 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7bd9809b6382cc679f46828447ff6cbdeb7d712f858f2566f8 .

** A message from the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food: The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, supported by a broad, bipartisan coalition, is a common-sense solution that brings consistency and transparency to the marketplace - similar to the National Organic Program.Tell your Representative to vote for this important legislation today. 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b196d61bd85029eb704ad1c58bbadd7e14f46e9d41095d3c5 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=aba812e33626da7b196d61bd85029eb704ad1c58bbadd7e14f46e9d41095d3c5  **

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